First published 2019
A French woman's corpse appears on a remote Cornish inlet, discovered by two young girls whose footprints mark the only traces near the body. Brian Macalvie from the Devon-Cornwall police takes charge of the investigation. Twenty miles away at Land's End, Inspector Richard Jury drinks at The Old Success pub with Tom Brownell, a retired CID detective famous for closing every case but one. Soon after the tourist's death, two more murders follow: a shooting on a Northhamptonshire estate and the killing of a church cleaner at Exeter Cathedral. Macalvie, Jury, and Brownell must determine if these three deaths share a connection despite their different methods and locations. The investigation pulls them across the English countryside as they search for links between a foreign visitor, an estate victim, and a cathedral worker. Each murder seems unrelated, yet the timing suggests otherwise. The case tests the skills of both active officers and the legendary retiree as they pursue a killer whose motives remain unclear.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, multiple-pov
Setting: Cornish Inlet, Devon-Cornwall, Exeter Cathedral, Land's End, Northhamptonshire
Period: 20th-century
243 pages · Hardcover · Atlantic Monthly Press